Marques Bovre, the thoroughly original Madison singer-songwriter, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He is scheduled to undergo surgery to remove it on Wednesday, September 14.

"Tracy, his wife, said, 'this is not a secret,'" writes Isthmus columnist Andy Moore in an email Wednesday. "They'll know a lot more about prognosis after Sept. 14 and the analysis of the tumor. In the meantime, he'll need the prayers, good wishes and karmic support of the many area artists and music lovers who know him as a fellow musician, consummate performer, and friend."

On his CaringBridge site, Bovre writes that he started feeling "under the weather" three weeks ago and noticed it was hard to find the right words, a stark development for a songwriter as sharp and prolific as Bovre, whose career in Madison has spanned two decades.

A mass was discovered via an MRI scan on August 26 which Bovre refers to as the Hob Goblin.

"I'm not afraid of him, I do not hate him," Bovre writes of his feelings toward Hob Goblin. "I'm just not ready to love him. So out he will come."

It will be no surprise to anyone who has enjoyed Bovre's work as a solo artist, with The Evil Twins, his seminal Madison band of the 1990s, or as the front man of SoDangYang that he ends the dispatch poetically.

"In the end only Love and Fear can rule us," he writes. "I'm going with Love."